Author: Jules Verne
Release Date: September, 1994 [Etext #164]
[Date last updated: June 25, 2005]
Edition: 11
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** Start of this project gutenberg
etext 20,000 leagues under the
sea ***
This etext was done by a number of anonymous volunteers
of the Gutenberg Project, to whom we owe a great deal
of thanks and to whom we dedicate this book.
A SHIFTING REEF
The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident,
a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless
no one has yet forgotten. Not to mention rumours
which agitated the maritime population and excited
the public mind, even in the interior of continents,
seafaring men were particularly excited. Merchants,
common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, both
of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries,
and the Governments of several States on the two continents,
were deeply interested in the matter.
For some time past vessels had been met by “an
enormous thing,” a long object, spindle-shaped,
occasionally phosphorescent, and infinitely larger
and more rapid in its movements than a whale.
The facts relating to this apparition (entered in
various log-books) agreed in most respects as to the
shape of the object or creature in question, the untiring
rapidity of its movements, its surprising power of
locomotion, and the peculiar life with which it seemed
endowed. If it was a whale, it surpassed in
size all those hitherto classified in science.
Taking into consideration the mean of observations
made at divers times— rejecting the timid
estimate of those who assigned to this object a length
of two hundred feet, equally with the exaggerated opinions
which set it down as a mile in width and three in length—we
might fairly conclude that this mysterious being surpassed
greatly all dimensions admitted by the learned ones
of the day, if it existed at all. And that it
did exist was an undeniable fact; and, with that
tendency which disposes the human mind in favour of
the marvellous, we can understand the excitement produced
in the entire world by this supernatural apparition.
As to classing it in the list of fables, the idea was
out of the question.
